NICARAGUAN NIGHTMARE: SANDINISTAS ATTACK CHURCHES SEPTEMBER 15, 2018 As Pope Francis comes under fire, Protestants in the U.S. face a church-too movement WE Accuser April Avila TOOspeaks up A PERSECUTED, FORGOTTEN PEOPLE: THE UIGHURS OF WESTERN CHINA CONTENTS | September 15, 2018 • Volume 33 • Number 17 32 19 44 48 52 FEATURES DISPATCHES 7 News Analysis / Human Race / 32 Crouching at every door Quotables / Quick Takes Sexual abuse is a problem in both Roman Catholic and Protestant churches—and here are three environments in which Protestants CULTURE are especially vulnerable 19 Movies & TV / Books / Children’s Books / Q&A / Music 44 Going to pot As states legalize marijuana, tobacco companies are indicating NOTEBOOK their interest in the reefer business 57 Lifestyle / Technology / Politics VOICES 48 No place sacred 4 Joel Belz Amid protests across Nicaragua and efforts by Christians to help the hurting, a worsening government crackdown targets 16 Janie B. Cheaney Nicaragua’s churches and Christian organizations 30 Mindy Belz 61 Mailbag 52 A forgotten people? 63 Andrée Seu Peterson China is holding hundreds of thousands of minority Uighurs in re-education camps, and Chinese financial muscle is keeping 64 Marvin Olasky much of the world silent about it ON THE COVER: Photo by Alex Garcia/Genesis Give the gift of clarity: wng.org/giftofclarity Notes from the CEO “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.” wrote about the cost of paper last time (refresher: it’s going up) —PSALM 24:1 and now I’ll write about the other big “P” that affects the way we Chief Content Officer Nick Eicher deliver WORLD to you, and that’s postage. Editor in Chief Marvin Olasky Senior Editor Mindy Belz I It, too, is going up. With postage costs, it is impossible to know with much cer- Editor Timothy Lamer tainty or specificity just how much they’ll rise. In the past, new National Editor Jamie Dean Managing Editor Daniel James Devine calendar year rates for periodicals have been based on the annual Art Director David K. Freeland Consumer Price Index through August. This year, with the index rising about 3 Associate Art Director Robert L. Patete Reporters Emily Belz • Charissa Crotts percent, we can expect at least that much of an increase in January. Sophia Lee • Jim Long • Harvest Prude East Asia Bureau June Cheng • Angela Lu Fulton In addition, the Postal Regulatory Commission may approve a plan to allow an Story Coach Susan Olasky Senior Writers Janie B. Cheaney additional 3 percent increase over the rate of inflation, which could mean some- Andrée Seu Peterson • John Piper Edward E. Plowman • Lynn Vincent thing in the neighborhood of a 6 percent increase. Correspondents Sandy Barwick • Megan Basham But that’s not all. Now there’s talk that Washington plans to reexamine the Julie Borg • Anthony Bradley • Bob Brown Michael Cochrane • John Dawson Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, and tweak the law to allow for even Juliana Chan Erikson • Katie Gaultney Charles Horton • Mary Jackson • Sharla Megilligan steeper price increases. And readers of periodicals are likely to carry most of the Jill Nelson • Henry Olsen • Arsenio Orteza Jenny Lind Schmitt • Russell St. John load. Marty VanDriel • Jae Wasson Mailbag Editor Les Sillars The law has two goals, in particular, that create tension with one another, and Executive Assistant June McGraw Editorial Assistants Kristin Chapman problems for publishers. The first goal is that of financial sustainability for the Amy Derrick • Mary Ruth Murdoch postal service; the second is the desire to allow periodicals low-cost delivery Graphic Designer Rachel Beatty Illustrator Krieg Barrie because they serve the public good. If the rate commission decides sustainability is Digital Production Assistant Arla J. Eicher more important than low-cost periodicals it will mean much greater rate increases for magazines like WORLD. Website wng.org Executive Editor Mickey McLean We are working to find ways to offset those increases with efficiencies else- Assistant Editors Kiley Crossland where, but to be clear, we’re going to have to charge a bit more to mail print maga- Lynde Langdon • Dan Perkins Reporter Onize Ohikere zines. We’ll look first to our monthly prices, with a view to holding the line on Correspondents Gaye Clark • Samantha Gobba Rob Holmes • Bonnie Pritchett • Julia A. Seymour longer terms. But, as always, our primary responsibility is deliver high-quality Editorial Assistant Whitney Williams journalism that glorifies God—regardless of what Caesar charges. Website wng.org/radio Executive Producer/Cohost Nick Eicher Managing Editor J.C. 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AOP aop.com VOICES Joel Belz So we cheer when President Trump seeks— and gets—a defense budget for next year with a staggering price tag of $840 billion. That’s a lot of muscle. But we like it so much better when the strongman of North Korea backs off without a shot being fired and suggests a peace treaty might be better. And we puzzle over whether it was all that muscle that produced Muscle and the concessions. It’s also why the U.S. Constitution, by any measure still the most effective man-made restraint charter of government ever devised and tested PEOPLE WANT FROM GOVERNMENT WHAT now for almost 2½ centuries, is so slender a document that if you spread its words in EVEN KIDS WANT FROM AUTHORITY newspaper format it wouldn’t fill two pages of USA Today. And it’s why that Constitution— “People want to be lightly governed by and especially its amendments—majors in R strong governments.” what the federal government shouldn’t It was a fine point first brought to my do, and only minors in what it should do. attention in the middle of a long editorial in Phrases like “Congress shall make no The Wall Street Journal. That was 25 years law …” are basic to its assumptions. ago—and the observation made such good I think it’s partly why American sense that I was compelled to enlarge on it in tourists used to love to go to this column. Now it’s time to reflect on that Washington and feel proud of what that wisdom again. city stood for, barely regretting the cost “People want to be lightly governed by strong of building so magnificent a city. But governments.” it’s also why those same small-business It’s what you’ve yearned for since you were people throw up their hands in dismay a small child. You wanted your dad to be big while trying to understand the newest and strong and able to do anything he wanted— environmental regulations and hiring except that when he dealt with you, it had to be laws.